why is Pluto not a planet?
2006-09-07 18:04:32 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
Pluto has been removed as a Planet
as its orbit is too elliptical and it passes/crosses
over Saturn's orbit. Thus, not considered
a 'regular' orbiting planet around
our sun.
This was decided about 2 weeks
ago in a convention in Barcelona,
Spain, and I for one, don't agree
with it.
Hope this helps some
2006-09-07 18:08:08 · answer #1 · answered by vim 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some say it is and others don't.
But why it isn't
Because pluto orbits differently than the other eight planets. This planet has a more tilted path of orbit than the other planets. That is what I've heard. All of the other planets are lined up side by side while pluto is either up or down at times. I'm trying to say "higher of lower" than the rest of the solar system. Hope that makes sense. I heard this on a TV show last week.
2006-09-08 01:09:00 · answer #2 · answered by thunderbomb90 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not super certain... But in a recent convention... all the astronomers agreed that they would create a new category of stars/planets which would include pluto. They changed the definition of a planet and pluto doesn't qualify anymore. They found another stellar body in the area that made it hard to classify Pluto as a planet...
Instead, now, with this new category for Pluto.. a bunch of other stars, planets or whatever they call them, will be joining it in this category.
For more info:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html
2006-09-08 01:11:53 · answer #3 · answered by Socrate 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Astronomers decided that there should be a new classification for planets within that size range which were found throughout the system (most likely in a attempt to not make the solar system to confusing) and decided to change the official classification of pluto from a planet to what is now called a dwarf planet, along with announcing a few other dwarf planets recently located throughout our local solar system.
2006-09-08 01:08:11 · answer #4 · answered by joel m 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The first controversy started when they found larger objects in the kuiper belt.
IAU Decision
Main article: 2006 redefinition of planet
There are three main conditions for an object to be called a 'planet', according to the IAU resolution passed August 24, 2006.
The object must be in orbit around the Sun.
The object must be massive enough to be a sphere by its own gravitational force. More specifically, its own gravity should pull it into a shape of hydrostatic equilibrium.
It must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.
Pluto fails to meet the third condition.[22]
The IAU further resolved that Pluto be classified in the simultaneously created dwarf planet category, and that it act as prototype for a yet-to-be-named category of trans-Neptunian objects, in which it would be separately, but concurrently, classified.
2006-09-08 01:10:41 · answer #5 · answered by sshazzam 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because not everything orbiting the sun is a planet. There are millions of asteroids and other space junk that orbit the sun.
MSN says...
According to the new definition, an object is a planet if it is round, orbits a star but does not orbit a planet, and clears a path around its star.
Pluto does a funny orbit with its "moon" and it has not "cleared its path" around the sun. There are other asteroids that share its orbit.
P.S. The conference was in Prague in the Czech Republic, not Spain.
2006-09-08 01:11:50 · answer #6 · answered by Cadair360 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Other than the fact that a group of scientists with clout have proclaimed it not to be...
Pluto is thought to be a Kuiper Belt Object. The Kuiper Belt is a belt of debris such as chunks of ice and rock and such, orbiting very far from our sun. In effect, this was stuff that was left over from the creation of the solar system. It's thought that Pluto, with it's highly oval, tilted orbit, was somehow flung inwards towards the sun, and "captured" by the sun's gravity in the orbit it's now in.
By comparison, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and as far as we know, Uranus and Neptune, formed more or less where they ar today, from the inner disk of dust and gas which enveloped the early solar system.
2006-09-08 02:12:54 · answer #7 · answered by minuteblue 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some scientist discovered 3 other maybe-planets, so they had to decide either to include them as planets or to disregard Pluto as planet, they decided the last one.
It was not NASA at all
2006-09-08 01:13:01 · answer #8 · answered by Classy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answer is no. Pluto will have dual classification as a planet and a TNO, at least for the time being.tha's what the internet said
2006-09-08 01:13:52 · answer #9 · answered by kickers 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well it turned out pluto was not a planet because pluto just wasn't big enough or just becase well i don't know lets go with NASA said so!!!
2006-09-08 01:08:05 · answer #10 · answered by Jessica H 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋